MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Icicles hang Tuesday from the eves of Chad Young's home off Peppers Ferry Road in Christiansburg. "I'm getting tired of the snow" he said after shoveling.

Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.

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Two years ago on this date, high winds rocked a partly cloudy afternoon, ripping shingles from roofs, toppling trees, snapping power lines and spreading wildfires.

Feb. 10 will again likely go down as a day to remember for high winds, but this time wildfires in extreme drought won't be a problem. Instead, a thick snow blanket covers Southwest Virginia, and that snow will be blown around by wind gusts that could top 60 mph.

The biggest problem, though, will be the possibilities of trees and power lines being toppled, especially those that have ice and snow on them.

The big wind is being caused by our region being caught between a powerful low pressure system on the East Coast, delivering another big snow to the Washington area, and strong Arctic high pressure to the northwest.

The strong winds will fling a few snow showers, but it will be difficult to tell sometimes because of all the snow being tossed by the wind off the ground and off trees.

Arctic air will be reinforced, so don't expect the snowpack to disappear this week.

For now, it appears that a weekend winter storm will miss us to the south, dumping snow in some Deep South areas that don't get it often. But the overall pattern that has produced repeated shots of snow will linger, likely for the next two or three weeks, at least.

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